Review: On a Sunbeam by Tillie Walden // Or, Gays in Space (in a Koi Fish Spaceship because Why Not?)

★★★★★ | Read here Preferably at 2am while curled up under blanket and contemplating existence.

“I read that chapter you showed me. About how I should think of all the circuits and wires like they’re roads. And that it’s like one big map. Every part is unique, but they’re all connected. I think I sorta get it . . .”

Mia begins her adult life and gets a job in reconstruction with a small team which consist of two married women, a niece of one of them, and a non-binary person. But the story is not linear – it also takes us 5 years back to Mia experiencing her first love.

So, there’re two stories: Mia and her chosen family on the ship and Mia and Grace.

They interwind and finally merge together. Every part is unique, but they’re all connected.

This story made me feel things I didn’t know I could feel. I cried, cried, cried. And I regret not one tear.

The art is simple but not lazy or boring. This simplicity gives every detail much more impact and keeps the focus on all the intense emotions.

I love how the scarce usage of colours left me wondering about the meaning of each of them.

The story starts with only two and both of them are cold. We get purple for present and blue for the past. Progressively, warmer hues are added. It usually happens when Mia feels something – when somebody leaves some impact.

I like to think that the present purple came from Mia’s blue and the red she felt with Grace.

You know this edits ‘x song heard from the other room’?

Somehow Mia’s emotions managed to capture the essence of it.

It’s like a distant song about longing heard from the room you’re not in anymore while you try to get on with your life.

Mia wants to get some closure.

And she’s ready to work hard even if that’s the only thing she ever gets. She goes after Grace with no expectations other than saying goodbye.

She grows from an impulsive little girl into an amazing mature woman. And she gains much more than she thought she would.

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